Although I assume the below message is written tongue-in-cheek, I guess it might be a good idea to put somewhere in a prominent place on www.gimp.org a pointer for "casual Windows users" to follow, to Jernej Simoncic'c installer page.

"Frank Cizek" writes:

Please bear with me for a minute...

Confusion - there's always a lot of it regarding releases, new or otherwise, of GIMP. Please bear with me on this and you'll soon understand what confronts the casual user who just wants to download & use the GIMP. I DON'T want you to answer these questions, just to follow me on my journey. For instance, at:

http://www.gimp.org/ it says: "GIMP 1.2.4 Released - The long awaited version 1.2.4 has finally been released. This is a bugfix release in the stable 1.2 series. Grab it from ftp.gimp.org or from one of the mirrors. Note: The print plug-in now depends on libgimpprint. This is a new requirement if you upgrade from 1.2.3 Get it from the Gimp-Print site.

I wonder, does that mean you don't need the "bugfix" if you freshly install 1.2.4?

Also at http://www.gimp.org/ It says, "Where can I get The Gimp? Easy. From this site. Just look at the Download section. There you'll find the latest stable and the current development version."
At the Download section, http://www.gimp.org/download.html, you show "Latest GIMP Stable Version", but also say "The Windows version of the GIMP follows a slightly different release schedule. You can find it on the GIMP for Windows page. I think(?) I need that windows version so I go there, to: http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/ expecting to find the new Windows release and don't find anything that seems to relate to downloading it. Maybe there's a Win schedule? Nope, don't find that either. So, you must have meant us to download from the "http://www.gimp.org/download.html" page. I remember somewhere you ask us to download from a mirror site, so I chose: ftp://ftp.cs.umn.edu/pub/gimp/
and am confronted with 20 links. I read the 'ReadMe' file, which explains that v1.2/ is "The current stable subdirectory." So, I only need this file, right? It's for 1.2.4, right? Right? It's an .edu site, not Tor's, so can I trust it?
Should I also get the fonts? It says, "Contains lots of cool fonts that are good for using with the GIMP." Well, I have a lot of fonts I like, so I guess not.
Oh, wait, it also says, "Please, do yourself a favor and install the fonts in the fonts directory,
or many plug-ins will not work.". OK, guess I'll get the fonts too.

So, I'm done. WAIT! What about printing? I GoTo the "Gimp-Print site" (http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/) It says, "For a quick download, please visit here.", so you go there (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1537 ), to "Project: Gimp-Print - Top Quality Printer Drivers: File List" and see:

"Below is a list of all files of the project. Before downloading, you may want to read Release Notes and ChangeLog (accessible by clicking on release version).", followed by:

espgs-7.05.6.ppc.dmg 5648125 3222 PPC.dmg gimp-print-4.2.6-pre1.ppc.dmg 4147775 4608 PPC.dmg gimp-print-4.2.6-pre1.tar.gz 5005762 604 AnySource .gz

Do we need one of the files? Which? All of them? None of them? And as for "you may want to read Release Notes and ChangeLog (accessible by clicking on release version).", I have to wonder if these files are meant for the casual user or developers? The "Release Notes and ChangeLog" are certainly not evident on that page, so where are they if we do need them? Or, am I somewhere I don't need to be?

So I jump back to the text at: http://www.gimp.org/ where it says: "GIMP 1.2.4 Released - The long awaited version 1.2.4 has finally been released. This is a bugfix release." So I wonder, (my brain, what's left of it, slowly turning to mush) does this "bugfix release." go with the 1.2.3 version, the 1.2.4 version, or is it included if I download a (standalone?) gimp-1.2.4.tar.gz from ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/v1.2/v1.2.4/?

I could go on, but I think you are getting what I mean. Basically, you guys do a LOT of work on GIMP & these updates & it's probably all clear to you. But it's not clear to us (me), which is why you have to waste a lot of time answering our less than coherent questions.

What's the answer? I'm not sure that there is one except to maybe put at the top of some pages a link that says, "CASUAL WINDOWS USERS GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD! The info on this page is NOT for YOU!", & then take them (us) to a page like Jernej Simoncic's that says under his "Main" heading that we need these TWO files, & they MUST be installed in this order. At last, something definitive & simple! Except, then he says, "Note: This is a prerelease. Gimp 1.2.4 is not yet released officially."

Sigh! ;-)
Frank Cizek

I wrote:
>> guess it might be a good idea to put somewhere in a prominent place >> on www.gimp.org a pointer for "casual Windows users" to follow, to >> Jernej Simoncic'c installer page.

Sven Neumann writes: > Does that mean that Jernej Simoncic is now shipping the "official" > GIMP for Win32 packages?

Yes and no.

Yes: It means that he ships the most widely used (only?) binary installer of GIMP for Win32. (Containing stuff from the zipfiles I distribute, i.e. he doesn't compile it himself.) Has done for quite some time.

No: The only "official" GIMP distribution is the source code, isn't it?

> It would be nice if this Jernej would > subscribe to this list then, introduce himself and provide us a way to > contact him.

I'll Cc this message to him..

> It would also be nice if he could get a Bugzilla account.

Sure, for bugs that are in the source code. But are bugs in end-user binary packagings appropriate for Bugzilla? OTOH, the installer is built with an installer-builder, directed by a script file. This script is kinda source code. Should it be in CVS? It is available from Jernej's page (close to the bottom, "The install scripts are availabe here".)

--tml